Jeff Houck

The Tampa Tribune’s food writer since 2005, Jeff Houck covers the way people live through their food. He also hosts the Table Conversations food podcast and believes that everything crunchy is good.

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Melting Pot Oozes With Success [Brand New Brand Growth During An Economic Downturn]

Posted Jul 19, 2010 by Jeff Houck

Updated Jul 19, 2010 at 06:47 PM

Tampa Bay is an incubator for chain restaurants. Outback got its start on Henderson Boulevard in Tampa and gave birth to resulting restaurants Roy’s Hawaiian fusion, Carrabba’s, Bonefish Grill, Flemings Prime Steakhouse and Lee Roy Selmon’s.

Hooters introduced tasteful tackiness in Clearwater. Beef O’ Brady’s in Brandon gave rise to the family friendly sports bar in Brandon.  EVOS gave us the healthy fast-food concept and Checker’s Drive-In taught us how to serve burgers from prefabricated buildings.

And (please bow your head for the dearly departed or heavily wounded ) we’re also the home to Sam Seltzer’s, Shell’s and Hops.

One that gets overlooked: The Melting Pot, which turns 35 this year. It has almost 150 locations with another 20 in development.

Despite a down economy, the Melting Pot’s managing brothers Mark and Bob Johnston are is aiming to join the bigger boys in the franchising world:

* The Melting Pot launches new social media hub – Fondue Fanatics, a social media site containing a Chef’s Corner, recipes, webisodes, blog and polls.

* International expansion – The franchise went international with one unit in Edmonton. There are six units under development in Canada, seven planned for Mexico and possible overseas markets in the works.

* New corporate identity -  The company plans to organize January 2011 under the new umbrella Front Burner Brands, which will act as a multi-brand restaurant franchisor and restaurant operator. Front Burner will include current concepts The Melting Pot and GrillSmith as well as new concepts: Peel and Burger 21

* Burger 21 – The new upscale casual burger franchise signed its first lease in Westchase with a projected opening of its first store in October.

Equally as interesting to me is their collaboration with noted chef Chris Ponte of Café Ponte in Clearwater. Ponte is consulting on the menu for both Peel and the Burger 21 concept. He also has consulted for fine-tuning of GrillSmith’s menu.

It should be interesting to see how these initiatives evolve. If things play out the way Melting Pot Front Burner Brands wants, they could become something akin to Atlanta-based Raving Brands, owners of Doc Green’s, Monkey Joe’s, The Flying Biscuit Cafe and, formerly, Moe’s Southwest Grill, which is now owned by Focus Brands. Focus also owns Schlotzsky’s, Carvel and Cinnabon.